


Together We're Invincible

by smaragdbird



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Family Reunions, Gen, Lando Calrissian to the rescue, Paige Tico lives, This is canon as far as I'm concerned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 16:12:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14288628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/pseuds/smaragdbird
Summary: Paige Tico lives - now she just needs to get off this planet and find her sister again.Thankfully the Resistance does still have some friends left.





	Together We're Invincible

**Author's Note:**

  * For [maplemood](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maplemood/gifts).



> You gave me the perfect excuse to finally write that PaigeLives Fix-it that I've been craving since TLJ came out.
> 
> Hope you'll like it :)

As a child Paige had fallen into a pit full of fire beetles. Up until this moment that had been the worst pain she had ever been in. She had always thought that nothing would ever compare to that pain. 

She had been wrong.

She remembered Poe screaming her name over the radio. She remembered setting off the bombs. She did not remember crawling into an escape pod and she certainly didn’t remember crashing it. But going by the folded up metal and shattered transparisteel window around her, she had definitely crashed.

Her ribs hurt with every breath she took. Something had gone into her leg and her upper body had been sliced like a fruit by the exploding glass.

Paige tried to move her fingers, then her toes. She could feel all of her body which was both good and bad. She gripped a protruding piece of metal with bloody palms and cursed loudly at the pain but held on to pull herself up a little. And a little more. And further. 

Bit by bit she pulled herself out of the wreckage. Finally she toppled over the edge and face first into the grass next to her escape pod. She screamed in pain when she felt the impact in every single bone of her body. She lay there, she couldn’t say how long, panting and trying to get the pain under control. 

Eventually she got onto her hands and knees, leaving bloody handprints on the grass. She knew she couldn’t stay here. The Resistance had left D’Qar and the First Order was gaining ground. The base had been destroyed but there was an emergency transponder in her escape pod if that had survived the crash.

With a deep breath that hurt more than help Paige grabbed a ledge on her wrecked escape pod to pull herself upright. She managed, barely, leaning against the pod and breathing hard. Sweat was running into her eyes and her cuts were burning like fire. But she needed that kriffin emergency transponder if she wanted a chance at getting off this planet alive.

She did purposely not think about what she’d have to do if the transponder was damaged. She wasn’t a good mechanic under the best circumstances. Rose had always despaired a little about her inability to do more than the most basic repairs. 

Stars, Rose probably thought she was dead. The idea that her little sister was sitting in some dark corner of the Raddus, crying and alone, hurt worse than any of her injuries. She had to return to the Resistance.

Paige gritted her teeth and leaned over the edge of the escape pod. The movement sent a wave of pain through her chest that left her gasping for air. Her hand felt blindly for the emergency transponder. She knew where it was supposed to be but maybe the crash had dislodged it like it had scrambled the entire pod.

Just when she was about to give up in frustration her fingers touched a small rectangular device and managed to pull it free. With the transponder gripped tightly in her hand Paige let herself slide down the side of the escape pod.

She pushed the button that would send her signal and, exhausted, let the transponder fall from her slack hand on the grass. There was no way of telling who would pick up her signal. Maybe it was the First Order. Maybe it would be a random nearby trader or maybe, if she was really lucky, it would be the Republic.

Paige wished that there was a way to contact Rose, just to let her know she was still alive. At least she had seen the Dreadnought class destroyer explode so she knew that her sister wasn’t being pursued by a ship that could blow up the Raddus in an instant even with its shields up.

She couldn’t tell how long she spent sitting there as she kept slipping in and out of consciousness. Sometimes the pain from her injuries kept her awake for what felt like hours. Sometimes it felt as if she had barely opened her eyes before they were drifting shut again. Still she didn’t think that more than half a day had passed before she heard the engines of a ship.

Not the engine of any ship she recognised but Paige thought for some reason that they sounded expensive. She squinted up against the setting sun to make out what kind of ship it was but all she could see was that it was big and had a silvery surface. It didn’t look like any ship she had ever seen before.

Slowly she moved her hand to the pocket on her leg where she kept a blaster. If it was the First Order she wouldn’t go down without a fight. Giving up, surrendering was not in her nature.

People were coming towards her but the sun kept her from recognising their uniforms. She thought they were white although not bulky enough to be stormtrooper armour. But that didn’t mean much. The Empire had used white uniforms for some of its officers and since they had done it, the First Order probably used them too.

“What’s your name?” One of the people asked her. His voice was warm and kind and he didn’t sound like a First Order officer at all.

Paige still raised her blaster. “Lieutenant Paige Tico of the Resistance”, she replied, ready to fire at any moment.

“Senator Lando Calrissian, I believe you called for help”, the man replied, apparently not fazed that she was threatening him with a blaster.

Paige lowered her blaster. She had heard of Lando Calrissian, everyone in the Resistance had. He was one of their main allies in the Senate against the First Order and Poe had often spoken admiringly about his flight against the 2nd Death Star. “I’m sorry”, she rasped. “I thought you were the First Order.”

“Understandable”, Lando replied. “I’m sure you have quite the story to tell about what happened here and where the rest of the Resistance is but you look like you need medical treatment first. Do you agree?”

Paige nodded, feeling too weak and exhausted to speak. 

“Good”, Lando said and Paige thought that she liked his voice. “My people will bring you back to my ship and take care of you until we reach Bespin. Hopefully you’ll feel better by then.”

Despite her situation Paige couldn’t help but smile. Bespin, a city in the clouds, a dream for every pilot and a technological marvel. She and Rose had always wanted to visit it and now she would.

/

Paige was aghast when she saw the Millennium Falcon land on Bespin. There was no way all the people from the Resistance would fit onto one ship even if it was packed stern to after.

“Is that all?” Paige asked Lando, who was standing next to her. “There are no other ships?”

“I’m afraid not”, Lando replied. He looked concerned too. “Leia told me it had been a close call but that…” he trailed off.

The landing ramp was let down and Paige recognised General Organa as the first one to leave with ship with Poe at her side and a girl that Paige had never seen before. General Organa gave a short order to the medics that had been waiting on the landing platform and they immediately rushed inside. More people walked out of the Falcon, some that Paige knew and was relieved to see and others that she had at most talked to in passing. But no Rose.

Poe recognised her first and jogged across to her before wrapping her up in a hug. Paige thought that she could feel her recently healed ribs crack under the pressure of his embrace but she was holding him just as tightly. 

“Kriff, Paige, I thought...it’s good to see you”, Poe said when they finally let go of each other.

“Poe, where is Rose?” The temporary relief of seeing her friends again was immediately replaced by the dread she felt about her sister not being among them.

“She’s here”, Poe said, pointing at the Falcon. “She was injured in the battle against the First Order. She was incredible. Now both Tico sisters are heroes”, he added with a smile.

“Will she be okay?” Paige asked because she could care less about Rose being a hero as long as she was alright.

“I’m sure she will be”, General Organa assured her who had caught up to them by now. 

Over her shoulder Paige could see the medical team leaving with Rose on a stretcher accompanied by a worried looking young man. When the medics passed them Lando motioned them to stop for a moment so Paige could see Rose. She looked incredibly small and fragile and her hand was lifeless when Paige took it into hers.

“What happened?” Paige asked as Rose’s hand slipped from her grip as she was taken away.

“She saved my life”, the young man next to Poe said and he sounded so incredibly guilty about it. He had to be Finn, going by the roughly twenty thousand times Poe had talked about him since he had come back from Jakku. Paige couldn’t believe that that had only been four days ago. 

“Told you Rose was a hero”, Poe said, squeezing her shoulder. “She’ll spend a couple days in a bacta tank and then you two can swap stories.”

“I should’ve been there”, Paige said quietly.

“Paige, no”, Poe grabbed her by both shoulders. “If you hadn’t taken out that dreadnought none of us would be here. You saved all of our lives, including Rose’s.”

“He’s right Lieutenant Tico”, General Organa added. There was a quick exchange of looks between her and Poe that Paige couldn’t decipher but thought looked meaningful. “You and Rose both survived and I’m sure she’ll be glad to see when you she wakes up.”

/

Paige was woken up by getting poked in the face. She had fallen asleep next to Rose’s bed, wanting to be there when her sister woke up. Only now it seemed that her sister was waking her up. Paige opened her eyes, saw that Rose was smiling at her and immediately hugged her as tightly as she could.

She was crying, feeling too overwhelmed by everything that had happened in the past few days, and she could feel that Rose was crying too. They clung to each other like they hadn’t since they had made it off their home world and away from the First Order.

“I thought...I thought you were dead”, Rose hiccupped when she stopped crying for long enough to speak.

“I managed to get into an escape pod”, Paige told her. “But the explosion kicked it off course and I crashed on D’Qar. Senator Calrissian picked up my signal and rescued me. But it seems I can’t leave you alone for two days without you turning into a hero”, she added with a smile. Especially Finn had sung Rose’s praise to anyone who would listen.

“The plan didn’t work”, Rose said with a miserable expression.

“I know”, Paige replied. “Poe told me about, and Finn and General Organa. They all praise you to the core of the galaxy and back. Don’t ever do that again”, she added more seriously because she didn’t know what she would’ve done if Rose hadn’t made it. Probably hidden in a storage room and cried her heart out for the next decade.

“No promises”, Rose laughed weakly.

“Guess I’ll never let you out of my sight again then”, Paige said and smiled. “I won’t even let you go to the bathroom on your own.”

Rose wrinkled her nose. “You wouldn't.”

“I would. Mum and dad told me to take care of you.” Paige poked her in the side where she knew Rose was ticklish and watched sister try to squirm away. “Promise me you won’t do it again.”

“No!” Rose squeaked when Paige poker her again.

“Promise me!”

“Nooooo!” Rose squealed when Paige used both hands now to tickle her. “Okay”, she added breathlessly.

Paige let go of her. “Good to hear you’re seeing reason.”

“That was coercion”, Rose said, glaring at her.

“Why? Because I made you laugh?” Of course Paige had grown immune against Rose's glare ages ago. “You think you’re up for some visitors?”

“Who?” 

“Pretty much the entire Resistance. Apparently both Tico sisters are heroes now.”

When she saw Rose’s eyes light up at being called a hero, Paige thought that maybe this had been worth it to some extent but she was going to keep a closer eye on Rose anyway.


End file.
